Thorpe Starts Fast With World Record

Ian Thorpe started the World Swimming Championships on Sunday by breaking one of the three world records he holds, coming from behind to win the 400-meter freestyle at Fukuoka, Japan.

Immediately after collecting the gold medal, the “Thorpedo” anchored an Australian victory in the 400-meter freestyle relay.

The U.S., which had won the relay in all eight previous world championships, finished third, then was disqualified for using a different No. 3 swimmer than the one listed on the official pre-race entry.

The night’s work gave Thorpe two of the seven gold medals he hopes to win. The 18-year-old also holds the world records at 200 and 800 meters, and plans to swim in the 100 as well as two more relays.

Thorpe cut 0.42 of a second off the old mark, finishing in 3 minutes 40.17 seconds. He set the old mark of 3:40.59 in winning one of three Olympic gold medals in Sydney.

Countryman Grant Hackett repeated as silver medalist, finishing in 3:42.51. Emiliano Brambilla of Italy took the bronze in 3:45.41.

In the relay mix-up, the Americans submitted the name of Greg Busse as the No. 3 swimmer, but Nate Dusing swam instead.

Tennis

Gustavo Kuerten of Brazil routed Guillermo Canas of Argentina, 6-3, 6-2, 6-4, to win the Mercedes Cup at Stuttgart, Germany, his first tournament victory since his French Open title in June.

Kuerten rose one place to second in the Champions Race--trailing only Andre Agassi--that will determine the year’s No. 1 player.

Alex Corretja of Spain was pushed to five sets in defeating Younes el Aynaoui of Morocco, 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (0), 3-6, 6-4, on clay in almost four hours in the final of the Energis Open at Amsterdam.

Argentina upset Germany, 4-1, at Hamburg, Germany, and France defeated Italy by the same margin at Vittel, France, in Federation Cup matches.

That put the two countries into the final round of the women’s team championship, to be held at Madrid from Nov. 5-11. They join Belgium, the Czech Republic, Spain and the U.S.

Basketball

The Miami Sol (13-9) won its franchise-high seventh consecutive game, defeating the New York Liberty (16-7), 68-52, in a WNBA game before 18,132 at Madison Square Garden to end the Liberty’s eight-game home-court winning streak.

After sitting out three games because of a broken foot, Chamique Holdsclaw scored 19 points as the Washington Mystics (6-14) ended a five-game losing streak with a 69-61 victory over the Indiana Fever (7-15) before 16,021 at Washington. . . . Astou Ndiaye-Diatta scored 18 points as the Detroit Shock (6-15) ended a four-game losing streak with an 80-77 overtime victory over the Portland Fire (10-11) at Portland, Ore.

Miscellany

Hicham El Guerrouj of Morocco won the mile and American stars Maurice Greene and Marion Jones swept the 100-meter races in the British Grand Prix at Crystal Palace in London.

El Guerrouj won in 3 minutes 49.41 seconds, edging Olympic 1,500 champion Noah Ngeny. Greene easily won the men’s 100 in 9.98 seconds. Jones won the women’s 100 in 11.00.

Chris MacClugage of Canyon Lake dominated Pro Runabout 1200 on Queensway Bay in Long Beach for his 100th International Jet Sports Boating Assn. victory.

MacClugage, who clinched his eighth national title earlier with a second-place finish in the Pro Ski 785, is close to winning two titles in one season for an unprecedented third time.

MacClugage’s Team Kawasaki teammate, Dustin Motzouris of Azusa, won the Pro Ski race.

Gabrielle Rose of the Irvine Novaquatics, set a meet record in the women’s 200-meter individual medley on the final day of the Janet Evans Invitational at USC, finishing in 2 minutes 15.15 seconds. Novaquatics’ teammate Diana MacManus won the 100 backstroke in 1:02.96, a Southern California Swimming age-group record.

Jesus Arellano and Daniel Osorno scored to help Mexico defeat Chile, 2-0, at Pereira, Colombia, and advance to the semifinals of the Copa America soccer tournament. Uruguay defeated Costa Rica, 2-1.

Alabama football Coach Dennis Franchione has been cleared by federal investigators in a racial-discrimination case brought by two former TCU players.

Julie Murray scored late in the first half as the Bay Area CyberRays (8-4-2) extended their unbeaten streak to a WUSA-best 10 games with a 1-0 victory over the Washington Freedom (6-8-2) before 16,174 at San Jose. . . . Cindy Parlow scored two goals as the Atlanta Beat (8-1-7) extended its unbeaten streak to nine games with a 2-1 win over the New York Power (6-5-5) before 7,059 at Atlanta.

Former Nebraska quarterback Tommie Frazier is hospitalized in Lincoln, Neb., because of an infection related to his chronic blood-clot problem. Frazier is the running backs coach at Baylor.